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"I don’t eat no ham and eggs…" {Brave Horse Tavern}

May 29, 2011

Whenever I hear the phrase “Ham ‘n’ Eggs,” I think of the A Tribe Called Quest song by the same name. Though I’m dating myself a bit in saying so, it’s one of those super nostalgic high school songs for me. My Senior year, my best friend and I fell in love with it. It was hilarious. We introduced a couple of our other friends to it as well. It became kind of an inside joke. And like most inside jokes, it probably sounds pretty obscure and not very funny to you, but you’ll just have to trust me that it was. We even had necklaces, mine said “Funk” and hers said “Rhythm.” A couple of months ago, I found my necklace in a jewelry box. I have no idea how it’s made an adulthood’s worth of moves with me (especially since I haven’t worn it since my Freshman year in college), but I’m glad it has. I don’t really talk to that friend anymore, but I sent her a note when I found it. She told me she’s kept hers in her own jewelry box all these years too. Anyway, if you’re curious about the song, here it is. Don’t expect it to explain any more about why it’s so memorable. When you’re eighteen, everything feels deeply important, and I guess that means it was.

Anyway, this post isn’t about ham and eggs. On Friday night, B and I had tickets to attend the Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF) where our friends, Rider Strong and Alex Barreto, were screening their short film. Sadly, they weren’t able to make it to Seattle for the festival. I use their full names because you really should see it if you have the chance. The Dungeon Master is awesome. I’m no more a film critic than I am a food critic, and to be fair, I’d support them even if it was bad. Fortunately, I wasn’t faced with that situation. The audience responded really well and at one point, I found myself squirming uncomfortably in my seat. If you see the film, you’ll know that’s exactly what you’re supposed to do. As for the rest of the films in the program, let’s just say they weren’t really my taste. I enjoyed a couple of them, but overall, I feared for my own night’s sleep after watching them.

While waiting for the program to start, I mentioned a tweet from Brave Horse Tavern. The week before I noticed their weekend event called Kegs ‘n’ Eggs. I really wasn’t expecting us to go, at least not this weekend, but B’s face lit up when he heard it. Our original plan was to go to Tini Bigs after the movie, but there are only so many calories in my holiday weekend budget and I figured they were best spent on breakfast the next morning.

I knew we would love Brave Horse Tavern. After all, it’s not often Tom Douglas makes a mistake or does anything half way. B seemed surprised by how taken he was with it right off the bat, though. The actual space is gorgeous. It truly feels like you’ve walked straight out of Washington into a Texas Tavern… except nicer. Complete with picnic style tables and shuffleboard, Tom’s team didn’t miss a beat with the ambience. One reason we hadn’t visited yet was that they don’t take reservations. Normally this isn’t a problem. We just stop in early on our way home from work and beat the crowd. Given that Brave Horse Tavern pretty much sits right in the middle of Amazon’s South Lake Union campus, though, I’ve heard the after work crowd can be unreal. Saturday morning, perusing the huge space, choosing the perfect place to sit (it was all seat yourself), brunch (or blunch as it eventually was) seemed like a much better idea.

We chose a high table behind the bar up against the window. Mere moments later, our awesome server, Paul, appeared and offered us a drink. Having not even looked at a menu yet, we suddenly had two pints and two soft pretzels on their way. It didn’t really feel like a choice. That’s not to say that Paul was pushy because he wasn’t at all. He just made those pretzels sound totally irresistible. He was right.

B had the Fish Tale Brewing Co.Organic IPA. My beer was the really special one, though. For this particular Kegs ‘n’ Eggs, Brave Horse Tavern had Ninkasi Brewing visiting as their beer was featured with the brunch special (that I almost ordered). Special for Seattle Beer Week, they had a Vanilla Oatis Stout. If there’s a stout on a menu, I’ll usually order it since the barley doesn’t bother my stomach in the way wheat beers do. Sometimes this comes at the price of a bitter taste. This one, though, was quite the opposite. It wasn’t bitter at all and the vanilla beans give it a lovely scent. The vanilla flavor definitely lends a sweetness to the taste, but not in an overpowering manner. I’m glad I had the chance to try this one, but a little bummed that it’s a special edition. The pretzels (that Brave Horse Tavern is already known for) came with three dips – peanut butter bacon (yes, really), sour cream with crispy onion and cheddar pimento spread. The cheddar pimento was my least favorite of the three, but all were very good.

While we ate our pretzels and enjoyed our beer (and between B’s exclamations of “This place is awesome!”), we finally spent some time with the menu. Twitter had revealed one other piece of information before we left for Brave Horse Tavern. It was National Burger Day. I don’t know who proclaimed this fauxliday, but it was as good an excuse as I needed to consider a burger. We managed to celebrate Seattle Beer Week, National Burger Day and Memorial weekend all in one meal. We’re very efficient. B was still determined to have his eggs. Of course, he did admit a willingness to consider a burger if it had an egg on it.

And there it was under add-ons. A fried egg. The BHT burger is 100% Painted Hills Chuck House on Dahlia Workshop bun with smoky burger sauce, Iceburg, dill pickle and mayo. I added a fried egg and avocado to mine. B added the fried egg and Applewood bacon to his. We split an order of fries. Between the beer and the pretzels, there were already enough carbs on the table without us each having our own order.

This was one of those meals that I wanted to keep eating way after I was full. Truthfully I didn’t make much of a dent in it, but it wasn’t for lack of trying. I just kept taking smaller bites to keep going, but eventually it got a little ridiculous. It just really was that good.

We finished our meal and really, really didn’t want to leave. There’s only so much beer one should drink at that hour, though, and we still had the whole day ahead of us. We’ll just have to settle for another visit soon. We’re trying to work out how to use the Seattle Streetcar to avoid SLU parking altogether next time.